The First Army Advancing on Fengtienfu (Daiichigun Hôtenfu shingeki no zu)

This large-format sensō-e documents the Imperial Japanese First Army's advance on Fengtienfu (Mukden, present-day Shenyang) during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The full Japanese title, Daiichigun Hôtenfu shingeki no zu, translates as 'Picture of the First Army Advancing on Fengtienfu,' suggesting this is an official or semi-official commemorative print rather than an improvised journalistic sheet. The Battle of Mukden in February–March 1905 was the largest land engagement in pre-World War I history, and Gekko's composition likely renders the scale of the advance through panoramic landscape—the flat Manchurian plain under winter conditions, long columns of troops extending toward the horizon. The color palette may use the cold blues and grays appropriate to the northern winter setting, distinguishing this Russo-Japanese War print from the warmer, more varied terrain of his First Sino-Japanese War imagery.